“The purpose of The Citizen is to serve the areas of the East Bay that are severely under reported by the local media. The reasons your daily newspaper is sparse devoid of insight or context is either because of financial constraints leading to cutbacks in the newsroom or general dereliction of civic duty (that is the polite way of saying it).”

All right, fair enough.

Comes now the Bay Area News Project (BANP). See? It’s backed by more millionaires and billionaires than you can shake a stick at. Well, next month, they’re going to start up with The Bay Citizen. Here’s their logo:

Question Time. Do you think that there might be confusion between these two outfits, owing to the similarity of the names? I do. Can you imagine how future developments could create even more confusion? Mmmm…

Do you think the person(s) who came up with the name Bay Citizen for the BANP are aware of the online existence of the East Bay Citizen? Yes, of course, how could they not be?

Now, do you think the person(s) who came up with the name Bay Citizen for the BANP bounced the idea off of Steven Tavares beforehand? No, that’s a negatory, good buddy.

And do you think hardworking Steven Tavares is pleased with BANP’s actions? No. (Not saying he’s all pissed off or anything, as he’s manifestly Too Busy To Hate, just saying he’s not pleased.)

“The Bay Citizen Just got the green light – our launch party will be held at the historic Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on May 26th. It’s a wonderful venue for what we promise will be an amazing party!”

So, for $50 you can score two tickets and then be able to tell all your friends that you’re a “Founder” of the BANP’s Bay Citizen online venture

“I know that you’re passionate about local journalism, because you’ve signed up for our newsletter. Now, you have the chance to do something positive for Bay Area news. Help us create a vital institution for the Bay Area – become a Founder of The Bay Citizen.

“The state of news in the Bay Area is at an all-time low. Half of the professional journalists covering the Bay Area are gone. Original reporting about education, public policy, government, science and health, art, and other important civic topics has been hit the hardest. What important stories are we missing?”

Now hold on, is the state of news in the Bay Area really at an “all-time low?” Really?

I’ll tell you, one of the specific examples cited by BANP Founder (the real Founder, not a run-of-the-mill-$50-donation founder) F. Warren Hellman to show the need for non-profit journalism in the bay area was the category of ballet reviews. Now, I just finished coding the HTML for a brace of reviews for the latest ballet performance in town – check it out here. Do you think this incomplete list is too short? Do you think the quality of writing from all those writers just isn’t there? Mmmmm.

Cheer up newsie, you’ll be repurposed and back in action in a couple months:

Anyway, look forward to the BANP owning the field of arts review soon. I don’t know, maybe ballet reviews in newspapers were somehow better back in the day?

You can read the rest of that pitch letter after the jump. Be sure to take note of all the perks of Founderdom:

“As a Founder, you will receive:Free admission to our launch party for you and a guest. We’re planning to have the event in San Francisco, and we promise an entertaining evening.
Permanent recognition as a Founder on a special page of our Web site which we will unveil when our site goes live.
An invitiation to help shape The Bay Citizen by participating in our surveys and focus groups.
And of course, the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping to make history by supporting the future of Bay Area journalism.
Founders who donate over $1,000 will also receive an invitation to a small-group lunch with myself and Jonathan Weber, our Editor in Chief.